It’s all about levels and where you land on them.

Kansas City has a football team right now where the Chiefs are at one that few NFL teams have enjoyed this young season.

The Las Vegas Raiders aren’t, and such was proven in a 30-27 loss to the class of the AFC West on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.

But that in no way impedes the rebuilding process Las Vegas is undertaking. This wasn’t a step back. Not when you consider the opponent and how close things were throughout.

It’s all still very much on course.

The battle of 3-0 teams came down to one side (Kansas City) making winning plays when time called for it and another (Raiders) killing themselves with no run game and self-inflicted wounds down the stretch.

“Obviously, a difficult loss,” Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins said. “We did a lot of good things and a lot of things we could have done better. Credit the Chiefs. They’re a good football team, and when you make a mistake or don’t take advantage of an opportunity, they make you pay for it and it becomes hard to win.”

This was Raiders coach Klint Kubiak leaving the field at halftime, his team leading 13-10: “Not good enough. We’ve got to be better. But you know what, we’re winning. We’re going to win the game.”

That’s about as much as you’ll ever hear him say, and he did so because he believed it. Because his team to that point had outplayed Kansas City. Good for him. It’s about time this organization had a little swagger to itself.

Winning usually creates that.

But folks are also in the business of second-guessing and Kubiak certainly will be for his decision to take points off the board early in the third quarter.

Matt Gay’s field goal was good from 43 yards that gave the Raiders a 16-10 lead. But an illegal formation call against Kansas City afforded Las Vegas a fourth-and-2 from the Chiefs’ 18-yard line. Kubiak decided to go for it. Cousins threw incomplete.

“We were going to be aggressive going into the game,” Kubiak said. “I don’t regret it. I regret not getting it.”

The analytics are somewhat split on whether it was a good call but I didn’t mind it at all. The Chiefs certainly weren’t done scoring and you can’t count on holding Patrick Mahomes to field goals.

Be aggressive.

Problem: Kubiak should have taken the same approach in the fourth quarter, when he chose to kick a field goal for a 19-17 lead instead of going for it on fourth-and-2 from the Kansas City 30. Where was the aggression then?

“Just wanted the points,” Kubiak said. “We fell short the first time and wanted to get the points.”

That makes little sense.

None of it, however, takes away from the fact the Raiders had the ball in the end and were driving with a chance to tie. None of it gets in the way of what this franchise is trying to accomplish.

You just can’t make the mistakes they did. You can’t fumble a kickoff immediately following a Kansas City touchdown and then watch the Chiefs score again one play later with three minutes remaining in the game.

You can’t be late getting in plays while on that final drive – “I blew it,” Kubiak said of not relaying things in on time.

You can’t continue to offer a run game that is going nowhere, that managed just 72 yards on 26 carries. It’s holding this offense back. It’s not a threat in the least.

“I think we’ll keep getting our combo blocks better and working longer and our running backs will keep learning,” Cousins said. “I think it’s going to be this constant building that happens. With more time, you build that continuity and I think you’ll see this run game really come to fruition.”

It better. You’re so close to winning a huge game like the one on Sunday and you’re all but forfeiting a major part of the attack.

And still, the Raiders were in this to the end.

Kansas City is a better team. It’s at a different level right now than most anyone across the NFL. But that doesn’t mean at all such a result should negatively impact what the Raiders are trying to accomplish.

They might have been 3-0, but this is still a long-term rebuild. This is still more about the future than the present.

And losing to the Chiefs 30-27 doesn’t deter that in the least.

Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.